Michael Berkman

I am the Member for Maiwar and the first Greens representative elected to the Queensland parliament.

I am passionate about ensuring a positive outcome for the community on important issues like housing affordability, public transport, and appropriate property development.

I moved up to Toowong from Toowoomba for university, and have stayed in the area ever since. I’m a public interest environmental lawyer, scientist and most importantly, a dad to two wonderful kids.

Working in a community legal centre representing communities in legal cases against corporations seeking to damage local ecosystems pushed me to realise that our local area, indeed our State, desperately needs proper representation in the Queensland Parliament.

We need a local representative who is passionate about ensuring a positive outcome for the community on important issues like housing affordability, public transport, and appropriate property development.

Rampant property development is spreading across the electorate with no thought given to impacts on local schools, public transport or main roads that are already under pressure. Developers are submitting development applications that go against neighbourhood plans and public needs, yet they’re approved by our city council and state government without adequate consultation or consideration.

I want to see our parliament put Queenslanders before the profits of corporations and that’s why I support the Greens’ stand on banning political donations from property developers, mining, gambling, tobacco and alcohol corporations. It’s time we put the power back in the hands of the people and started to clean up politics.

As the representative of our local community in Queensland’s parliament, I will always put people and community before profit. This is increasingly uncommon in Queensland, and that’s why I am proud to represent the Greens in Maiwar.